Take These Simple Steps To Protect Your E-Commerce Site from Hackers
Your e-commerce site is your livelihood. It's where you make money and communicate with your customers. You need to do everything you can to make sure it's safe from hackers, just like you would with your home or car.
How do you do this?
Well, it's no secret that we live in a world where the need for cyber security is growing more important every day. This is especially true when it comes to e-commerce and online credit card purchases, where information is often being transferred behind the scenes.
This is why it's so important to keep your customers safe and their information secure. Here are some best practices for e-commerce digital security:
IP addresses are captured on digital transactions and can be used to identify fraudulent transactions in real time; make sure you're capturing this information from your users.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates encrypt data being transferred between servers and clients; for your e-commerce business, this allows for greater security of customer data.
Have a privacy policy that outlines what personal information will be collected from customers and how you'll use it. If you're taking credit card information, consider using a trusted third-party service.
A brief on PCI DSS
What is PCI compliance? If you're a merchant who accepts, processes, or stores credit card data—or if you're someone who manages merchants, like a payment processor or an acquiring bank—you need to be PCI compliant.
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of standards that apply to businesses that accept major credit cards, and it's intended to help keep your credit card information safe.
PCI compliance means that you follow the guidelines set by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. The PCI security standards are designed to protect brands and consumers from fraudsters who might access their sensitive credit card data.
If you don't comply with these standards, you could be fined thousands of dollars per month, and your company could be put on a list of non-compliant merchants.
Therefore, it is crucial to only use credit/debit card payment processors that are PCI compliant.
E-commerce fraud is on the rise
In fact, in 2017 alone, over 16.7 million credit card numbers were stolen in the United States. And that number doesn't even include all of the stolen debit card numbers.
With stats like that, it's easy to see why so many people are worried about identity theft—and rightly so.
In addition, your e-commerce site is a prime target for hackers. However, there are steps you can take to protect yourself from a breach. Start with the most important ones here:
Store credit card information securely in your database. You'll need to encrypt the data when you store it, but you also need to make sure you're using the correct type of encryption so that it can't be decoded. Otherwise, a hacker could get into your database and access customers' credit card information without difficulty. Keep in mind, after a transaction has been authorized, the full magnetic stripe data found on the back of your credit or debit card, as well as any equivalent data on the EMV chip or elsewhere, can no longer be stored. This is known as Sensitive Authentication Data (SAD). Storing SAD is not permitted. SAD also includes the CVV (or equivalent data) as well as the PIN and PIN block. This data is extremely valuable to attackers for use in both card-present and card-not-present environment. This information must be protected in transit and at rest, and associated with a token that represents the cardholder's account number outside of your system. This token can then be used for subsequent transactions rather than storing actual SAD.
Think like a hacker. Figure out what kind of loopholes you might use to break into an account or steal information, and then work backward from there. It can seem tedious, but that "end user" mentality will help you see where your security might be lacking.
Update everything. Your site and its plugins, extensions, and features should be regularly updated. Check for updates every week or so, especially if there's been a security vulnerability announced recently.
Limit the number of people who have access to administrator accounts. The fewer people who can access sensitive information on your website, the better chance it has of staying secure in the event of a breach elsewhere (such as a social media account).
Scan for malware.
Have you ever wondered how much a data breach costs?
A study by IBM found that the average cost of a data breach is $3.92 million, and the average time to identify and contain a breach is 280 days.
The most expensive types of data breaches involve intellectual property, customer/employee PII, company records, and financial information. Breaches involving this type of data can cost more than $4 million.
It's not just the cost of the breach itself— it's the lost business and reputation, too. A single data breach can lead to hundreds of thousands of customers fleeing to another company, which will likely result in lost revenue.
Not only that, but your e-commerce site could be at risk for years after a data breach has occurred.
Thus, it helps to be agile around cyber security.
In summary
When it comes to online shopping, your customers want a store they can trust. Hence, the security of your website is only as good as its weakest link. Make sure all of your links are strong!